VARIABLE OPERATIONALIZATION

The OPERATIONALIZATION section of a proposal tells the reviewer of the proposal precisely what you mean when you refer to the varia les in your pro!ect" This section must clear up any confusion others #or you$ may have a out the meanin% an& measurement of the varia les in your stu&y"
Operationalization: When you have chosen the variables for your research questions, you must also operationalize those variables. Operationalization answers two key questions: 1) How is each variable efine ! ") How is each variable measure ! #efinition: #efinin$ each variable is often a technical e%ercise base on specific &ar$on an uses of wor s that are characteristic to your area of research. One place to be$in is to consi er how other researchers efine your variables in their research. 'ou may a &ust or a apt other efinitions to meet your own nee s, or you may borrow the efinitions that other researchers have use (if you use others) efinitions, or if your a apte efinition is inspire by other researchers, then you must reference that efinition the same way you i in your literature review). Never rely on a dictionary (or Wikipedia) definition for your operationalization. #ictionaries may $ive you some inspiration, but they are not a equate for efinin$ variables in the specific way it is use in a research pro&ect. *easurement: 'ou must also in icate how the variable is to be measure in your research. +ome variables, like age or height, are pretty strai$htforwar , but you must still state the metho of measurement: ,a$e will be measure in years,- or ,hei$ht will be measure in inches.- .or more comple% variables, like political persuasion or racism, you must in icate how you will 'uantify these concepts so they can be use as numbers for statistical analysis. /olitical persuasion mi$ht be a nominal variable etermine by somethin$ as simple as a sin$le question on a survey that asks: How woul you escribe yourself (check one): 00000 1iberal 00000 2onservative

or, you may use a metho which pro uces a ratio variable by askin$ several questions that woul be combine into a score so that you, the researcher, coul etermine quantitatively how much of a characteristic (such as liberalism) that each sub&ect possesses. However it is one, you must escribe your metho for oin$ so in the operationalization section ( escribe it in a way that other researchers woul make the same ecisions about each sub&ect if they followe your metho ).